June launch expected for Kangaroo video-on-demand portal

The BBC, ITV and Channel 4, video-on-demand joint venture, codenamed Kangaroo, is believed to be planning a June launch date.

The planned date for launching the service was leaked when BBC Worldwide approached advertising companies regarding the project.

Project Kangaroo will provide a portal to access programming from all three broadcasters – around 10,000 hours of content will be available from the broadcasters’ current and archive programming.

While it will initially launch as a web based application, it will be available for distribution on other platforms. Viewers will be able to stream or download content, and either watch for free, rent or buy.

Channel Five is in talks about joining the other four channels on the project, although it is still preparing to relaunch its own download service.

The BBC, ITV and Channel 4 will continue to maintain their own existing online video properties, all of which involved systems integrator ioko in the building stage.

Channel 4′s 4oD service may provide a template for the Kangaroo online video portal. 4oD has delivered 100 million streams and downloads since its launch two years ago.

The BBC’s iPlayer service delivered 11 million programmes in January and programming will soon be searchable using the blinkx video search engine. The BBC aims to make its content as widely available as possible to everyone in the UK, on whatever platform they choose.

Whether it will allow advertisers to place commercials around BBC programming when the new portal is launched remains unclear.